Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) trained with the Softmax loss are widely used classification models for several vision tasks. Typically, a learnable transformation (i.e. the classifier) is placed at the end of such models returning class scores that are further normalized into probabilities by Softmax. This learnable transformation has a fundamental role in determining the network internal feature representation. In this work we show how to extract from CNNs features with the properties of \emph{maximum} inter-class separability and \emph{maximum} intra-class compactness by setting the parameters of the classifier transformation as not trainable (i.e. fixed). We obtain features similar to what can be obtained with the well-known ``Center Loss'' \cite{wen2016discriminative} and other similar approaches but with several practical advantages including maximal exploitation of the available feature space representation, reduction in the number of network parameters, no need to use other auxiliary losses besides the Softmax. Our approach unifies and generalizes into a common approach two apparently different classes of methods regarding: discriminative features, pioneered by the Center Loss \cite{wen2016discriminative} and fixed classifiers, firstly evaluated in \cite{hoffer2018fix}. Preliminary qualitative experimental results provide some insight on the potentialities of our combined strategy.

This thesis focuses on data that has complex spatio-temporal structure and on probabilistic graphical models that learn the structure in an interpretable and scalable manner. We target two research areas of interest: Gaussian graphical models for tensor-variate data and summarization of complex time-varying texts using topic models. This work advances the state-of-the-art in several directions. First, it introduces a new class of tensor-variate Gaussian graphical models via the Sylvester tensor equation. Second, it develops an optimization technique based on a fast-converging proximal alternating linearized minimization method, which scales tensor-variate Gaussian graphical model estimations to modern big-data settings. Third, it connects Kronecker-structured (inverse) covariance models with spatio-temporal partial differential equations (PDEs) and introduces a new framework for ensemble Kalman filtering that is capable of tracking chaotic physical systems. Fourth, it proposes a modular and interpretable framework for unsupervised and weakly-supervised probabilistic topic modeling of time-varying data that combines generative statistical models with computational geometric methods. Throughout, practical applications of the methodology are considered using real datasets. This includes brain-connectivity analysis using EEG data, space weather forecasting using solar imaging data, longitudinal analysis of public opinions using Twitter data, and mining of mental health related issues using TalkLife data. We show in each case that the graphical modeling framework introduced here leads to improved interpretability, accuracy, and scalability.

This study explores an interesting pattern emerging from research that combines artificial intelligence with sound symbolism. In these studies, supervised machine learning algorithms are trained to classify samples based on the sounds of referent names. Machine learning algorithms are efficient learners of sound symbolism, but they tend to bias one category over the other. The pattern is this: when a category arguably represents greater threat, the algorithms tend to overpredict to that category. A hypothesis, framed by error management theory, is presented that proposes that this may be evidence of an adaptation to preference cautious behaviour. This hypothesis is tested by constructing extreme gradient boosted (XGBoost) models using the sounds that make up the names of Chinese, Japanese and Korean Pokemon and observing classification error distribution.

Autonomous agents embedded in a physical environment need the ability to recognize objects and their properties from sensory data. Such a perceptual ability is often implemented by supervised machine learning models, which are pre-trained using a set of labelled data. In real-world, open-ended deployments, however, it is unrealistic to assume to have a pre-trained model for all possible environments. Therefore, agents need to dynamically learn/adapt/extend their perceptual abilities online, in an autonomous way, by exploring and interacting with the environment where they operate. This paper describes a way to do so, by exploiting symbolic planning. Specifically, we formalize the problem of automatically training a neural network to recognize object properties as a symbolic planning problem (using PDDL). We use planning techniques to produce a strategy for automating the training dataset creation and the learning process. Finally, we provide an experimental evaluation in both a simulated and a real environment, which shows that the proposed approach is able to successfully learn how to recognize new object properties.

Distribution shift occurs when the test distribution differs from the training distribution, and it can considerably degrade performance of machine learning models deployed in the real world. Temporal shifts -- distribution shifts arising from the passage of time -- often occur gradually and have the additional structure of timestamp metadata. By leveraging timestamp metadata, models can potentially learn from trends in past distribution shifts and extrapolate into the future. While recent works have studied distribution shifts, temporal shifts remain underexplored. To address this gap, we curate Wild-Time, a benchmark of 5 datasets that reflect temporal distribution shifts arising in a variety of real-world applications, including patient prognosis and news classification. On these datasets, we systematically benchmark 13 prior approaches, including methods in domain generalization, continual learning, self-supervised learning, and ensemble learning. We use two evaluation strategies: evaluation with a fixed time split (Eval-Fix) and evaluation with a data stream (Eval-Stream). Eval-Fix, our primary evaluation strategy, aims to provide a simple evaluation protocol, while Eval-Stream is more realistic for certain real-world applications. Under both evaluation strategies, we observe an average performance drop of 20% from in-distribution to out-of-distribution data. Existing methods are unable to close this gap. Code is available at https://wild-time.github.io/.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges & Opportunities of the Artificial Intelligence in Aviation Chapter 4: Presenting the Artificial Intelligence in Aviation Market Factor Analysis, Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Tristan Rouillard is the VP of Machine Learning Solutions at CloudFactory. In this role, he leads the company's strategy and direction related to ML products and solutions offered to CloudFactory's clients globally. Tristan was one of the cofounders of Hasty, a data-centric vision AI platform focussed on making it easier to implement the ML flywheel in production. Hasty was recently acquired by CloudFactory in late 2022. Before founding Hasty, Tristan was the Head of the Venture Development team at WATTx, a manufacturing, industry 4.0 focussed incubator, where his team built the business models and go-to-market strategies for various early-stage ventures.

Deepfake is a deep learning-based technique that makes it easy to change or modify images and videos. In investigations and court, visual evidence is commonly employed, but these pieces of evidence may now be suspect due to technological advancements in deepfake. Deepfakes have been used to blackmail individuals, plan terrorist attacks, disseminate false information, defame individuals, and foment political turmoil. This study describes the history of deepfake, its development and detection, and the challenges based on physiological measurements such as eyebrow recognition, eye blinking detection, eye movement detection, ear and mouth detection, and heartbeat detection. The study also proposes a scope in this field and compares the different biological features and their classifiers. Deepfakes are created using the generative adversarial network (GANs) model, and were once easy to detect by humans due to visible artifacts. However, as technology has advanced, deepfakes have become highly indistinguishable from natural images, making it important to review detection methods.

A myriad of studies addressed the problem of rumor verification in Twitter by either utilizing evidence from the propagation networks or external evidence from the Web. However, none of these studies exploited evidence from trusted authorities. In this paper, we define the task of detecting the stance of authorities towards rumors in tweets, i.e., whether a tweet from an authority agrees, disagrees, or is unrelated to the rumor. We believe the task is useful to augment the sources of evidence utilized by existing rumor verification systems. We construct and release the first Authority STance towards Rumors (AuSTR) dataset, where evidence is retrieved from authority timelines in Arabic Twitter. Due to the relatively limited size of our dataset, we study the usefulness of existing datasets for stance detection in our task. We show that existing datasets are somewhat useful for the task; however, they are clearly insufficient, which motivates the need to augment them with annotated data constituting stance of authorities from Twitter.

Gro Intelligence is tackling two of the biggest problems facing the world today: food security and climate change. We understand and quantify the complex interplay between food, weather, trade, agriculture, and macroeconomic conditions in a world upended by climate change, a growing population, and more. The team at Gro has built a platform that allows businesses, non-profits, and governments to better plan for and adapt to these changes. With offices in Nairobi, New York, and Singapore Gro has the financial backing of prominent investors such as TPG Growth, Intel Capital, Data Collective, and GGV. Gro is a diverse, intellectually curious team of technologists, scientists, and business professionals united by a shared commitment to build AI that addresses agriculture, food, and our climate on the most fundamental level.